The Valdivia River Market: Ephemeral Architecture and Color

Abstract

In Valdivia’s downtown, bordering the river of the same name, is the river market called feria fluvial, a covered and open public space where seafood and local products are traded. The feria fluvial is discussed from the perspective of its architecture and color, posing the following questions: What characterizes the market’s architecture and affairs? and What is its chromatic atmosphere? To answers these questions, on site observations and photographic, planimetric, and graphic registers by means of color sketches were used. From the architectural point of view, the market is studied as a space of ephemeral, fluid, continuous, and transparent architecture, having strong relationships with the surrounding urban and natural context. From the perspective of color, the analysis focuses on the market as a large multicolored space that creates its own chromatic atmosphere, a unique colored public space in the country’s south.